Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-09
THE COMING COUNTRY.
A CoRcisflT Pat Description OF the
Mos; promising Territory in
sfhe Great Vest
The Lands, the Dimensions, the Popul a
ton, Pfospects Counties and Towns of
sthe Panhandle of Texas.
Tascosa Pioneer.

OlO6r states north anu GasIj IA-usdoJ
Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia
and many others il less degree both
farther north and farther east-the inter
est manifested by such people In the
probabilities and prospects of the coUn-
try which is Just beginning to draw
share of public attention-the country
which is little known but much
wondered about-the country which
It is dimly thought must have
some promise since the railroads
find It so attractive-this interest in this
country has found thousand methods Of
expression. One to which individual at
tention here has been, and is being CO1tin-
ually called,is the numerous letters OF in
uuirY which come to almost every citizen
BY almost every mail, from one ana all
directions. They embrace an endless va
riety Of questions, ss they express the
curiosity Of men of different pursuits
and different circumstances, rich men
| and poor men, spectators, merchants,
| nome seekers, who are already possessed
/ of 8 fair competence to begin the
! battle with, and men Of families
who have no capital but strong arms and
brave hearts They may want to know
! the terms upon which .OWn property can
! beshad, and the prospects OF an increase
| intits value; they may want to find out
about the chances Of securing a nome
stead, improved or unimproved; they
Aaay ask for the opening for merchant
I'm this or some neighbOTing town; they
Evil INQUIRE whether TascoSa is sure OF
4 g railroad, or more than one railroad,
What is the population of the town and
county, where is the most farm
ing done and how much farming,
where is the richest soil and
how good is the best for farming
purposes, does the drouth of ordinary sea-
| sons not stand as barrier to agriculture,
what crops will grow, if any, how good
or bad is your societ2, is law enforced,
will the cattlemen and the officers allow
settlers to come in, what railroads point
towards this or that quarter and where
will the road cross, what interests are
represented so far and who owns the
lands, what can man do with small
bunch Of cattle or other stock, what
wages prevail, how about schools and
| churches, hoW does fruit grow or prom
! Use to grow, and what kind Of fruit, is
| the valley or plains Iand the
most promising, will not your
/ bridge over the Canadian river
make yours g permanent town in spite Of
| all else, would 8 land agent not find an
! immense business in the near future in
any portion Of the Panhandle; and letters
| generally close with q wish for "Gll adj
diuonal information you can give me-"
! To answer 6ll these questions and numer-
Gus others asked IS something OF an
| heroic undertaking, bat description
which replies 10 some OF them and ig-
nOres others as unimOortant is not salts
! factory 20 the reader nor calculated to
answer the purpose but poorly IL any
sense.
The Panhandle is composed Of the fol-
| lowing twenty-seven counties, Wis: Dal-
| lam, Sherman, Hsnsford, OChiltree, Lips
comb, Hartley, Moore, Hutchinson,
Roberts, HemphiII Oldham, Potter, Car
son, Gray, Wheeler, Deaf Smith, Randall,
Armstrong, DoDIey, Collingsworth,
Greer, Farmer, Castro, Swisher, BrisCo,
! Hall and ChildTess, and has total area
of about II 900 square miles, which means
something near 100000 acres. OF all
these counties of the Panhandle but five
are organized: Oldham, Wheeler, Donley,
| Greer and Cbildress; the others are at
tached TO these for land and judicial
purposes. In all there are but three
important towns in three of the organ
| lied counties: Tascosa in Oldham Coun-
! tv, Mobeetie in Wheeler, Clarendon in
| DOnley; there is G newspaper in each of
| these three towns, and fourth st Lips
comb. There are such towns just spring
| ing up as Lipscomb in LipscOmb county,
! Mangum, in Greer county, ChildTess and
Henry in Childress county, Ochiltree in
! OChiltree county, and at the crossing of
the Fort Worth aud Denver Railway On
Red river and of the Southern Kansas on
the Canadian. In addition to these
| places above named the estab
lished postofiices of the Panhandle
are Zulu in Hansford county, Fort
| Elliott in Wheeler county, Paloduro in
! Armstrong, and one or two other boxes
/ of no responsibility nor much COnse-
quence. Other offices will be established,
it is probable, during the year, where the
needs Of the neighbOrhOods are begin
ming to demand them. There will be OBJ
| served by those who inspect the current
maps Of the Panhandle certain towns or
offices marked on the Canadian river
above and below TascCsa, which are cal
culated to mislead in q measure. Such
II y
dom, Adobe and one or two more never
existed.
The conhguratton of the country is
most romantic and indicates its healthful-
ness. The Panhandle is mostly an eleva-
ted plains country, dotted by thousands
Gaakes which do rot hold out, however,
through the d7outh; coursed by the Can
sadian AID its numerous small tributaries
through the northern part, and Red river
and its tributaries across the south, and
ntersected By occasional deep canyons.
The plains are the most elevated portions
and are quite level. Water is not often
found on these plains only in wet
seasons, when the lakes contain
it; but recent experiments have
supplied it in a few places both
by digging down some distance and
by putting in tanks. Timber is equally
scarce with the water supply, or eyeEsf
more so, both on the plains and through !
out the Panhandle. The principal Kinds |
found are cedar, cottonwood and mes
quite bushes; the mesquite grows on the |
level prairies, ;the cedar among the brakes
beside the water courses, and the cotton-f
wood in the river and creek valleys. a !
good deal Of the flre-wood used by the
people who live adjacent TO the large !
streams is the drift Gel ried down during